


The Ramifications of Time Travel

by elenniel



Series: Steve and Peggy [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Steggy Week 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-23
Updated: 2020-07-23
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:08:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25472170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elenniel/pseuds/elenniel
Summary: Steve needs to decide whether he should go back in time to be with Peggy or not.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers, Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers
Series: Steve and Peggy [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1845091
Comments: 2
Kudos: 29





	The Ramifications of Time Travel

**Author's Note:**

> This is me working through my headcanon of how Steve would have arrived at the decision to go back, and how this could have happened without breaking the canon of the MCU.  
> A follow-up to _[In Director Carter's Office](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18732910/chapters/44433265)_.  
> \-----  
> For **Day 6 of Steggy Week 2020: "Headcanons and fave moments"**. I know Peggy's not directly in this bit but she looms large in Steve's decisions so, I assume (hope?) it counts!  
> 

Steve naturally had a soft spot for the retro look in interior design, but 177A Bleecker Street’s brand of “retro” clearly dated back farther than the 1940s. He wondered if Dr Strange or any of the other sorcerers ever thought about redecorating. It would be a cinch with their powers.

Dr Strange put his fingers together and looked thoughtfully at Steve over his fingertips. He said, “Captain, what exactly are you asking me?”

“For advice, Doctor.”

“Advice on whether you should go back and never return.”

“Yes.”

Steve met Strange’s gaze with what he hoped was a calm demeanour. If anyone knew anything about time and all its mysterious workings, it would be Stephen Strange, and he just had to have more answers. Having Bucky’s support was one thing – and a very important thing too – but it wasn’t enough to make such a big decision with just that.

It did seem weirdly but extremely possible that he would somehow still become Peggy’s husband, living under an assumed name. Have kids together, even. _Kids_. It boggled the mind. He had never even considered that Peggy’s children would also be his children. He’d assumed the mysterious husband, whose photos managed to be nowhere public, was someone else. And yet there was that bizarre incident in her office…

_“Steve!”_

_“We don’t want anyone thinking Captain America’s suddenly come back from the grave. Honestly, Steve. What’s gotten into you?”_

_“Darling, it’s always lovely to see you but perhaps try not to pick such a busy day to drop such surprises on me?”_

There was that.

Bucky was one hundred percent convinced that he was indeed Peggy’s husband, and that he ought to go right back to her and complete the circle that was meant to happen. But Steve needed to hear advice from someone else too.

That someone else was still staring at him with an oddly intense blank look.

“Do you want to go back there, Captain?”

“If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be here asking you this.”

Strange continued staring at him.

Steve tried not to sigh. He said, “I would really like a second opinion on this, Doctor. You’re the only one who could be called an expert on time.”

“What advice do you want? Do you want me to tell you to go back? Or do you want me to tell you _not_ to go back? People so often ask for advice that they don’t want to hear. I’d rather not waste my time giving unwanted advice.”

“Whatever advice you give, I’ll be sure to consider it carefully.”

“Even if I said you shouldn’t go back?”

“If there are going to be bad repercussions… Then I won’t go.”

“Steve!” Bucky exclaimed.

“I can’t indulge myself and risk everyone else, Buck. If I do this, I’ve gotta know that this future will be intact. That it won’t… Waste everyone’s efforts.”

Tony and Natasha’s faces rose in his mind. No, he couldn’t waste what they’d done just to indulge in his own selfish desires.

Bucky just looked at him and then settled back in his seat with a slightly disgruntled but resigned expression.

It was another long minute before Dr Strange spoke. Steve lifted the cup of water to his lips and realised suddenly that the water level had stayed exactly the same as it had been when Strange first gave it to him, even though he’d been drinking from it. A magic cup of some sort? Who knew? A self-refilling cup was a minor oddity in his life. That it was such a small thing to him was odd in itself. Peggy would never believe it if he told her.

“There would be restrictions,” said Doctor Strange. “You wouldn’t be able to talk about a lot of things.”

“That seems reasonable.” Not talking about all this crazy future tech might be a good thing. It would be so difficult to explain how things worked or why they were that way.

“You wouldn’t be able to _fix_ a lot of things.”

“Fix?”

“HYDRA, for one. You know now how it grew in SHIELD. You can’t fix it.”

A nugget of discomfort began to grow inside Steve.

Strange went on. “If you don’t want to disrupt the timeline, you have to leave that as it is. You wouldn’t be able to play Captain America – no saving the world. And, perhaps harder still for you, Captain: no saving him.” He pointed at Bucky.

The nugget of discomfort became one of dismay. Being told not to do anything about HYDRA discomfited him a little, but being told to leave Bucky – to not save him before it was ‘time’ to do so… That seemed unthinkable. He realised then that subconsciously he had been imagining all the good he could do – all the things he could ‘fix’ – if he went back.

“Hey. Steve.” Steve turned to Bucky, who said, “He’s right, you know.”

That was the worst of it. Steve _did_ know. He remembered the arguments over how time travel worked when they were testing the Timesuits. Rhodey and Scott had been rather upset to find out that time travel did not quite work the way the movies taught them it did. So he had known this. He’d known that he wouldn’t be able to fix things. But he’d forgotten. The real ramifications of time travel began to sink in now.

Dr Strange added, “If you do that sort of thing, Captain, you’re going to change this future. So, if you think you won’t be able to live a normal life… To _not_ save SHIELD. Or your friend here. Or stop the tragedy of Howard Stark’s death, or anything like that. If you can’t resist trying to change these things that will have repercussions on the future… Then my advice to you is: do not go.”

***

They stepped through a portal from Bleecker Street into the Avengers’ temporary headquarters and waved at Wong as the portal fizzed shut. Bucky noticed Steve’s sombre demeanour.

“Don’t tell me you’re actually considering not going back,” he said, heading for the living area.

“I don’t know.”

Bucky flopped onto the sofa and made an exasperated noise. “You’re _still_ trying to play the hero. Are you ever going to take a break?”

“How can I go back and just _let_ things happen?” Steve sank into a chair. “Especially if I know I could fix it?”

“Because you _wouldn’t_ actually be fixing anything in the long run,” said Bucky. “You just need to remember that if you ‘fixed’ some of these things before they’re supposed to be fixed, then you’re setting the world up for other – maybe worse – problems later on.”

“Does that mean I’m supposed to let horrible things happen? What if I saw a kid about to get run over by a car? Do I let the kid get run over?” Steve flung out an arm and nearly knocked over a vase that Wanda had placed on a side table to spruce things up.

“I’m going to punch you,” growled Bucky. “Now you’re just being stupid. Strange didn’t say to not do any good at all. _Of course,_ you should save the kid in that case. What he said was don’t try to fix the things you _know_ about. You know I’m going to be trapped somewhere and brainwashed. Don’t try and get me out earlier. You know HYDRA is going to infiltrate SHIELD through Zola. Don’t stop him. You know I’m going to cause the death of the Starks. Don’t save them. _That_ ’s the kind of thing Strange says you’re not to do.

“The you from your past is going to help fix the problems caused by letting those events take place. You’re still going to save me, Steve. Just not in the 1940s or the 50s. In 2014. You’re going to save us all from HYDRA. You’re going to be a friend to Howard Stark’s kid. You’re going to save the world, and you’re going save the universe from a purple giant called Thanos. The younger Steve Rogers, fresh out of the ice in 2011, will do all that. And after he’s done that – that’s when he takes a break.

“You know all this is true. ‘Cause you’ve done it already. It’s your turn to rest, Steve. Why don’t you?”

Steve blinked at him. “Since when were you the sensible one?”

“I was _always_ the sensible one,” retorted Bucky. “I wasn’t the one getting into fights he couldn’t win at all, or trying to bluff his way past medical checks into the army.”

Steve grinned. Then he drew his old compass out of his pocket and turned it over in his hands as his grin softened into a slightly sad smile. He opened it up and looked at the photo of Peggy inside.

“I really do want to be with her, y’know,” said Steve.

“I know,” said Bucky. “Go back, Steve. Marry Peggy. Have kids and raise them.” He reached over to clasp Steve’s shoulder. “Have the life you dream of. You can rest because you know that you’ll save the day in the end. And the rest of us will be there to help. And we’ll be okay.” 

**Author's Note:**

> I realise that it did end rather sounding like Bucky was echoing Pepper's words to Tony. Decided that I rather like that parallel, so I'm going to leave it and hope others like it too. :)


End file.
